Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-08-10
EXILES IN SIBERIA.
The PardOning POwer-Escape
Almost ImpOssible-Nume
Gus INUuirfes.

Gus Inquiries.
l was informed by number of the
government officials in Siberia tha
the exiles were not sentenced for life
but for five years each. Just before
the expiration of his term O
absence report upon his con
dition is sent to the pardoninl
power. If that report is favorable the
prisoner is permitted to return tc
Russia; but if, on the contrary, the
lspravnik reports that his frame o.
mind is not such as to make him al
present safe member of the commu.
nifty, the poor wretch is doomed tc
another five years term and usually
is sent still further away into the viii.
derness.
In all the Siberian towns | found
exiles who had been in the country
for various periods, and not infre-
quently those whose terms had ex-
pired, but who still dwelt the . as
during their long absence from hussia
their homes had been broken up,
their people scattered, and nothing re-
mained of sufficient attraction to win
them from the rough lives to which
they had become accustomed. In the
large towns and cities, such as va
koutsk, lrkontsk, Tomsk, Krasnor-
yarsk, Toblosk and Toumein, many of
the largest stores and hotels are kept
by exiles or ex-exiles, and many have
become valuable citizens of that
still undeveloped country. Those who
are assigned to Oriental Siberia ar
rive in Irkoutsk, the capital, and from
there are distributed to the more dis
tant points. Some are sent to the
northern and eastern towns, where
they are permitted to do about as they
please, to engage in business or in
hunting and fishing, but are not al
lowed to leave the districts. Others
are sent to the mines of the southeast
and to the island of Saghalien.
Escape is almost impossible, for
every person in the district is respon-
sible for the custody of the prisoners.
No one can travel anywhere without a
road pass, which states where and
how he is going, and, if to return,
when. Any individual, even the
natives, can ask you for your road
pass, and if not satisfied can cause
your arrest. Should prisoner escape a
heavy tax is put upon the entire dis
trict, and that secures attention to
their duty. And yet the hope of es-
cape is ever present as long as youth
and vigor last, but finally the habit of
life and of association become so
strong that few would care to return to
country from which their home had
disappeared even if released, and much
less make an effort to escape. l found
myself an object of much interest
to the exiles wherever Imet them, and
they invariably piled me with ques-
tions concerning my journey from
America through the land of the
Tchouktchis. l soon saw that in my
case there was added to the natural in
terest in seeing some one who was not
one of their jailers the deeper interest
of talking to one who had travelled
alone from point but forty miles
from the Gland of the free," and
they reasoned that if he had come that
way, depending upon the country for
subsistence, why could they not go to
America in the same way? Then,
too, was an American, and they be-
ieved that to be an American was to
be Nihilist. They were astonished
beyond measure when told that the
only Nihilists and Anarchists in Amer
lea were foreigners.-[C [Col. w. II.
Glider. in New York World.